Forecast

Newtown boys advance to Division I final

Anthony Parelli
| on May 29, 2014

NEWTOWN -- For three quarters Thursday afternoon it looked as if Newtown would cruise into the SWC Division I boys lacrosse finals, but an offensive barrage by New Milford in the fourth quarter put the Nighthawks victory in jeopardy.

After scoring only three goals in the first three periods the Green Wave rattled off five in the final period, but it wasn't quite enough to overcome the depth of a Newtown team that went on to win 11-8.

"We weren't taking care of the ball," New Milford coach Greg LaCava said of his team's early struggles. "We got a little bit away from what we've done to get here but we battled hard; we knew it would be a 48 minute battle. I'm proud of the kids; we know Newtown is a very good program."

The second-seeded Nighthawks made use of an extremely deep attack to eventually come out with the victory. Newtown utilized eight different players on its 11 goals scored and had nine players accumulate points in the effort.

"That's what we've been looking for all season," Newtown coach Glenn Adams said of his team's propensity to spread the ball around. "We've had games where one guy has four goals then he has zero and another guy steps up and has four, so we are 11 or 12 guys deep that we're confident about on the field and that's great -- especially in the playoffs."

Blaine McMahon had four goals in the contest for New Milford and three of them came in the fourth period where he furiously tried to get his team even with the then-dominant Newtown.

"The kid's a big game player," LaCava said of his junior captain. "He just wants the ball every occasion; no matter how tired he is I can rely on him for a big defensive effort or get a big goal on offense or whatever I need--he steps up in big moments."

The early defense of Newtown looked unbreakable, allowing only a goal per period for the first three periods and Adams said that success came by forcing the ball out of McMahon's hands and taking away the top of the box, forcing low-angle and contested shots.

Adams looks to continue that early success in the conference championship Saturday against Brookfield (2 p.m., Bunnell High School).

"We want to come out just like this game with a lot of intensity; it's the last game, it's the championship, we'll be ready to go."